The Lord of the rings, 1954-2004 : scholarship in honor of Richard E. Blackwelder ; [this volume contains twenty papers presented at the Marquette University Tolkien conference of 21-23 October 2004

The fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of The Lord of the Rings, the enormously popular and influential masterpiece of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, is celebrated in these twenty papers presented at the Marquette University Tolkien conference of 21-23 October 2004. They are published in honor of the late Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder, who gave his important Tolkien collection to the Marquette University Libraries, long a major center for Tolkien research. Half of the papers in this book focus on The Lord of the Rings, while others investigate the larger body of Tolkien's achievements, as a writer of fiction, a maker of language, and one of the leading philologists of his day. The contributors to The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004 include a who's who of scholars in Tolkien studies: Douglas A. Anderson, David Bratman, Marjorie Burns, Jane Chance, Michael D.C. Drout, Matthew A. Fisher, Verlyn Flieger, Mike Foster, John Garth, Wayne G. Hammond, Carl F. Hostetter, Sumner G. Hunnewell, John D. Rateliff, Christina Scull, T.A. Shippey, Arden R. Smith, Paul Edmund Thomas, Richard C. West, and Arne Zettersten. As preface, Charles B. Elston, former director of Special Collections and University Archives, provides a reminiscence of Dr. Blackwelder and his generosity to Marquette. Fans and students of Tolkien alike will find these essays informative and entertaining. Hammond (rare books librarian at Williams College, US) and Scull (former librarian of Sir John Soane's Museum, UK) present the 20 papers presented at the eponymous Marquette University Tolkien conference, held in October of 2004 in honor of the late entomologist and zoologist turned J.R.R. Tolkien scholar, Richard Blackwelder, whose collecting activities provided the foundation of Marquette University's Tolkein collection. About half of the papers focus on Tolkien's major work, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, while the others discuss other topics, including the rhetorical evolution of Tolkein's essay on Beowulf, Tolkien as a linguist, the role of Tolkien in education, and special collections in the service of Tolkien studies. Annotation 2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)